Doug, I think that the Pres is asking that employees of the new agency be forbidden from forming or belonging to workplace unions. I think that it is asking to much of them to give this up, especially since nearly all of the agencies that are supposed to be merged ionto the new one have existing unions. Almost all Federal employees can belong to unions, except those in positions (such as the one I used to have before I retired) that are executive or managerial. That includes those that work for the Department of Defense (and Luke AFB, in your neighborhood, has an active chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees). No Federal employee has the right to strike, under any circumstances. Its my opinion that Mr. Bush is seeing this as nothing more than an opportunity to engage in some petty anti-union activity.